322 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETf. [JuHO 5, 



undiminished to all appearance in size and thickness, the main 

 stone band and the other prominent strata, with their accompanying 

 fossils and stock of pyrites, seeming all to be present as at Lea. 



Taking the entire depression between the Kenper and Lias outcrops, 

 and presuming it to be occupied with the Rhaetic beds, as in all pro- 

 bability it is, we get an area of from 3 to 4 miles long, and from i 

 a mile to 2 miles broad, as the surface- extent of this northern de- 

 posit; but whatever its size may actually be now, there can be no doubt 

 that it once formed part of the north-western boundary of a vast 

 Rhaetic sea, which extended, it may be, from Norway*, across the 

 German Ocean, to Ireland, and southwards down the continent of 

 Europe, and which, save in such patches as these, has long since 

 been swept oif the earth's surface, or buried beneath more modern 

 deposits ; and it is from such considerations, and the light the dis- 

 covery of these outlying strata casts on what would otherwise be 

 vague and obscure, that the interest and value of their examination 

 mainly depend. 



June 5, 1867. 

 SPECIAL GENERAL MEETING. 



The following addition to the Bye-laws was proposed by Mr. S. 

 R. Pattison, seconded by Mr. J. W. Flower, and adopted by ballot, 

 with one dissentient : — 



Section XIX. 5. The Society shall not and may not make any 

 dividend, gift, division, or bonus in money, unto or between any 

 of its members. 



ORBINABY GENERAL MEETING. 



Augustus Wollaston Franks, Esq., F.R.S., F.S.A., Keeper of 

 Antiquities, British Museum, W.C., was elected a Fellow. 



The following communications were read : — 



1. TAe Alps «nc? i?ie Himalayas : a Geological Compaeison. 

 By Henry B. Medlicott, Esq., A.B., F.G.S. 



[The publication of this paper is postponed.] 

 (Abstract.) 

 Current opinions on Alpine geology are first fully discussed by 

 the author, especially as regards the abnormal nature of the actual 

 boundary of the Molasse with the rocks of the higher Alps, including 

 the explanation usually given of this phenomenon, and of the con- 

 tortion of the inner zone of Molasse — namely, the direct upheaval of 

 the main mountain-mass. Mr. Medlicott then describes some of the 



* The probable existence of the Ehatic beds on the Island of Bornholm, and 

 in the province of Schoonen, is indicated on Dittmar's map showing the distri- 

 bution of the formation; but at present there is no fossil-evidence to prove with 

 certainty the age of the beds in question. 



